


Air to Breathe

by aces



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-15
Updated: 2008-07-15
Packaged: 2020-10-18 16:01:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces/pseuds/aces
Summary: Inspired by the song "An End has a Start" by the Editors.





	Air to Breathe

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song "An End has a Start" by the Editors.

_you came on your own_   
_that’s how you’ll leave_  
_with hope in your hands_  
_and air to breathe_  
~"An End Has a Start"

“Oh—_rabbits_!”

“Come along, Tegan!” The Doctor’s voice drifted back to her as he sprinted toward their goal. “_Hurry_!”

“Easy for you to say!” Tegan hollered at his fast-retreating back. “You’re not wearing heels!”

“You really should find some more practical footwear!” The Doctor apparently had amazing breath control, as he spat that entire sentence out without once having to stop. “The TARDIS wardrobe has a wide variety of styles and sizes from which to choose—”

“Just shut up and _run_, Doctor!” Tegan gasped, finding a new burst of adrenaline that brought her a few steps closer to the Time Lord.

It didn’t help that the ground was uneven, the sun glaringly bright through the trees and flashing directly into Tegan’s eyes, and that the only breeze that stirred she created herself with her mad dash. No, none of it helped, and here she was, running for her life on what should have been a glorious day of lolling about drinking screwdrivers and getting a bit of a tan.

That was the Doctor for you, and hopefully Nyssa and Adric at least were enjoying a bit of a holiday. Unless they were both just in the TARDIS working on maths or something. Tegan wouldn’t put it past either of them. She’d try to persuade them both to loosen up but she feared that was beyond even her skills.

“_Tegan_!”

“Coming!” Tegan shouted back and re-focused her attention on running, on the broad cream-colored back in front of her. Stay on target. She’d always been on target. Hadn’t she? Didn’t explain why she was running like a madwoman after an alien in the bright yellow sun.

Ah well. She’d already resigned herself to running after the Doctor for however long she stayed with him; somebody had to chase down the idiot and make sure he didn’t get himself killed, after all. Sometimes she consoled herself with the thought that it was a good way to stay in shape.

“Almost there, Tegan!” She’d actually caught up with the Doctor, she was surprised to find; maybe he’d slackened his pace a little to make the silly little human feel better. “Not much further, I promise!”

“You’d bloody well better be right,” Tegan muttered, or would have if she weren’t so busy huffing. She thought she might actually take a look at the shoe selection in the TARDIS wardrobe, though there was no way in hell she was going to tell the Doctor that.

She’d developed a stitch in her side, and sweat was dripping down the sides of her face and neck. The sun beat down, and for the hundredth time since meeting the Doctor, she wondered, _Will this ever end?_

_One—step—more—one—step—more—_

“Wait!” the Doctor suddenly yelled out as they emerged into a large clearing in the trees, and he put on a last burst of speed, surprising Tegan. “Hold on, please, two more!” He leapt into the basket, startling the people already there and turned around, holding out a hand toward Tegan. “Tegan!” he bellowed, and she was again surprised by the sheer volume of sound he could produce. Adric had once muttered something about earplugs, when she and the Doctor had got into another shouting match, and Tegan had almost smacked him for the remark at the time. He had a point, though, and she didn’t think she’d ever tell _him_ that either. “Come _along_, Tegan!”

“Coming!” Tegan gasped and stumbled into the side of the basket. The Doctor grabbed her, hauled her over, and she staggered into him when the hot air balloon lifted off the ground. He put an arm around her, supporting her, and looked down at her with a beaming smile. And then he turned to speak to the annoyed balloon pilot, slipping the man some money (which did seem to mollify him somewhat), while Tegan focused on catching her breath.

“Well, Doctor?” she said when he’d finished his transaction and turned back to look out over the side of the basket. “Was it worth it?”

He leant with his elbows on the edge of the basket, and he turned his neck to look up over his shoulder at her. “You tell me,” he said.

Tegan leant forward as well—the other passengers in the balloon were all looking out and oooh-ing over the other side, so they had a bit of room to maneuver—and looked down over the paths and fields and forests. The world was painted in primary colors—_green_ grass, _blue_ sky, _white_ houses in the distance. Up here, there was a bit of a breeze, and she was finally cooling off despite the heat coming from the flame behind her.

She was flying.

Tegan laughed. She shut her eyes for a moment, to take in the sensation, and then she opened them again to look around, and she laughed again. She looked at the Doctor, and he was grinning, and she bumped shoulders with him.

“Alright, fine,” she told him. “It was worth it.”

The Doctor sounded smug like only a Time Lord could. “I told you it’d be better than lolling about drinking screwdrivers and getting a tan.”


End file.
